Bosom of Abraham Trinity
Encyclopedia
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
apparently unique to English medieval alabaster
Nottingham Alabaster
Nottingham alabaster is a term used to refer to the English sculpture industry, mostly of relatively small religious carvings, which flourished from the fourteenth century until the early sixteenth century...
sculpture, of which only twelve examples are known to have survived, although there were undoubtedly many more made. They adapt an earlier convention where a figure of Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
himself held tiny figures of souls in a cloth between his hands representing the Bosom of Abraham
Bosom of Abraham
"Bosom of Abraham" refers to the place of comfort in sheol where the Jews said the righteous dead awaited Judgment Day.-Origin of the phrase:The word found in the Greek text for "bosom" is , meaning "lap" "bay"...
.
In a composition showing the "Throne of Mercy" type of the Trinity, a group of tiny figures are seen in a cloth or "napkin" held or supported between the hands of God the Father
God the Father
God the Father is a gendered title given to God in many monotheistic religions, particularly patriarchal, Abrahamic ones. In Judaism, God is called Father because he is the creator, life-giver, law-giver, and protector...
. These represent the souls of the saved. There are five examples of free-standing statues known, in the Burrell Collection
Burrell Collection
The Burrell Collection is an art collection in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated in Pollok Country Park on the south side of the city.-History:...
Museum in Glasgow, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
and elsewhere, and seven high relief panels. The Burrel statue is 89 cm tall, and the Boston one 95 cm. The panels are presumably the usual size for such works, typically 40 x 25 cm, perhaps larger if they are the central panel in an altarpiece
Altarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
group. Both terms for the subject are the invention of modern art historians.
In the Boston figure, dated 1420–50, nine "souls" are seen, in two rows, with a king and bishop in the centre of the top row, distinguishable by their crown and mitre
Mitre
The mitre , also spelled miter, is a type of headwear now known as the traditional, ceremonial head-dress of bishops and certain abbots in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as in the Anglican Communion, some Lutheran churches, and also bishops and certain other clergy in the Eastern Orthodox...
. The napkin is not held by God, whose two hands are raised in a blessing gesture; it seems tied around the souls and to rest on God's lap. Male and female donor figures
Donor portrait
A donor portrait or votive portrait is a portrait in a larger painting or other work showing the person who commissioned and paid for the image, or a member of his, or her, family...
with banderoles kneel beside God's feet; they are at an intermediate scale between God and the souls. The Burrell figure, dated as "14th century", also has nine "souls" but the figures themselves are apparently restored; God holds an end of the napkin in either hand.
There were earlier images, common in the great French Gothic cathedrals of the thirteenth century, illustrating Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
himself with small souls represented as children in his cloak, or held in a napkin in the same way as in the alabasters. By "about the early fourteenth century" such images ceased to be "theologically acceptable", though it seems this news had not reached Cornwall by the early 16th century, when a stained glass Abraham with a napkin of souls was installed in the parish church at St Neot, Cornwall (picture below).
Hildegard of Bingen
Blessed Hildegard of Bingen , also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Elected a magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and...
, a figure usually described as "Synagogue", of youngish appearance with closed eyes, holds a group, with Moses carrying the Tablets above the others, held in the large figure's folded arms.
In addition, the theme combines elements of the Western Virgin of Mercy
Virgin of Mercy
The Virgin of Mercy is a subject in Catholic art, showing a group of people sheltering for protection under the outspread cloak of the Virgin Mary. It was especially popular in Italy from the 13th to 16th centuries, often as a specialised form of votive portrait, and is also found in other...
and the Russian Pokrov icons, though these are not necessarily direct influences. It was probably associated with the feast of All Saints
All Saints
All Saints' Day , often shortened to All Saints, is a solemnity celebrated on 1 November by parts of Western Christianity, and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Eastern Christianity, in honour of all the saints, known and unknown...
, and used on altars with this dedication. In the Virgin of Mercy, a standing Mary spreads her cloak wide, sheltering a crowd of figures, representing the living. In the Pokrov icons, she holds a small "veil" in her hands in a similar gesture to the Burrell figure, but this represents the vision of a Byzantine saint, where she spread her veil over the world as a protection.
Although no examples of the Bosom of Abraham Trinity have survived in other media, they probably once existed. English alabasters were exported across Europe and have survived in relatively large numbers on the Continent, especially France, while other publicly displayed artistic media from the period have mostly been destroyed since the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
. The English alabaster industry is a rather unlikely place for such a bold iconographic innovation in contemporary terms, since it concentrated on turning out large numbers of standard figures and sets of panels that closely followed more high-status forms of art in their iconography.
The type was first published in 1933 by the art historian Walter Leo Hildburgh, the leading authority on, and collector of, English alabasters.
Further reading
- Pamela Sheingorn; The Bosom of Abraham Trinity: A Late Medieval All Saints Image, Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium: England in the Fifteenth Century, edited by Daniel Williams, pp. 273–295, Paul Watkins Publishing, Donington.